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There is no logic in unrequited love any more than there is logic in a headache or a flu, and to try to make the lover submit his love to the conscious operation of reason is like trying to cure his migraine by taking his photo.

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Only a combination of time and distance can cure unrequited love: the lover must be physically separated from the object of her affections for a significant period of time.

I recently deactivated my Facebook account. I got tired of reading insignificant details about the lives of people I seldom see. Who cares if Bob ate a steak dinner tonight? And the quizzes were annoying. Folks must be really bored. Well, it seems I’m not alone. The New York Times published an article entitled “Facebook Exodus” which reports that “while people are still joining Facebook and compulsively visiting the site, a small but noticeable group are fleeing — some of them ostentatiously.”

See also this Newsweek story: You Can’t Friend Me, I Quit! The author exclaims “When I think about all the hours I wasted this past year on Facebook, and imagine the good I could have done instead, it depresses me.”

I will say in advance that I have absolutely no idea what the stock market will do in the future. But I have been trying to gain some historical perspective. Since 1965, the market’s three worst years (as measured by the S&P 500 with dividends included) were: 1974 (down 26.4%), 2002 (down 22.1%) and 2008 (down 37%). In 1975, the market went up 37% and in 2003 it went up 28.7%. And the only three year period of down markets during this period is 2000 to 2003. The past doesn’t predict the future. Still, I know so many people who are selling stocks now and buying bonds. I wonder if this is wise. The market in my opinion will turn around. This could be the buying opportunity of a lifetime for those with funds to invest. And if you haven’t sold long before now, is now really the time to sell? Moreover, it’s also possible that the Stimulus legislation will result in inflation making fixed income investments less desirable than equities.

Gregor Sieböck is an Austrian long distance walker who promotes simple and sustainable living. His website entitled Global Change has many motivating quotations and inspiring photographs. Mr. Sieböck has walked 15,000 km in three years to present alternatives for simple and sustainable living. I enjoy walking; it makes me feel centered. But Mr. Sieböck takes the cake.

As every flower fades and as all youth
Departs, so life at every stage,
So every virtue, so our grasp of truth,
Blooms in its day and may not last forever.
Since life may summon us at every age
Be ready, heart, for parting, new endeavor,
Be ready bravely and without remorse
To find new light that old ties cannot give.
In all beginnings dwells a magic force
For guarding us and helping us to live.

Serenely let us move to distant places
And let no sentiments of home detain us.
The Cosmic Spirit seeks not to restrain us
But lifts us stage by stage to wider spaces.
If we accept a home of our own making,
Familiar habit makes for indolence.
We must prepare for parting and leave-taking
Or else remain the slaves of permanence.

Even the hour of our death may send
Us speeding on to fresh and newer spaces,
And life may summon us to newer races.
So be it, heart: bid farewell without end.

“The fact is: Whatever you think the world is withholding from you, you are withholding from the world. You are withholding it because deep down you think you are small and that you have nothing to give.

Try this for a couple of weeks and see how it changes your reality: Whatever you think people are withholding from you — praise, appreciation, assistance, loving care, and so on — give it to them. You don’t have it? Just act as if you had it, and it will come. Then, soon after you start giving, you will start receiving. You cannot receive what you don’t give. Outflow determines inflow. Whatever you think the world is withholding from you, you already have, but unless you allow it to flow out, you won’t even know that you have it. This includes abundance.

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The source of all abundance is not outside you. It is part of who you are.”

— From “A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose” by Eckhart Tolle at pp. 190-191.